Spirituality column: Desperation is no laughing matter

8:15 PM,
Oct. 31, 2013

Written by

Norris Burkes
| Florida Today

In the fall of 1990, my ministry career transitioned from parish pastor to hospital chaplain, all by way of an internship at University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

My one-year training involved multiple calls from the emergency room where, between the usual gunshot wounds and motor vehicle accidents, I learned to recognize the symptoms of ritualistic child abuse, the smell of maggots in infected wounds and the risks of using animals for erotic gratification.

I learned that people do some tragically foolish things. While most patients learned not to repeat their ...